2023 Cloudride Prologue: Event Recap

Words by Steve Watson (@breathtaking.events), photos by Phillip Sage (@phillipsage)

The Cloudride Prologue Bikepacker runs in a loop in and out of Canberra, Australia’s capital. Now in its sixth year, the Prologue was introduced as an entry-level overnighter (or two) to encourage riders to transition up to the longer 1,000-kilometre Monaro Cloudride, which is now in its 10th year. For the shorter Prologue, the option of a country pub or motel for a bed or the chance to roll out your sleep kit was up for consideration.

Gradually, over the past 3-4 years, the challenge of doing an all-nighter and riding the 500 kilometres straight through has gathered momentum. Seven-time World XC 24-Hour Champion Jason English gold stamped this in 2021, finishing in 24 hours and 6 minutes. The 2023 Prologue course promised to be a fast ride with open-rolling country and a mild 6,500 metres of climbing. There were plenty of contenders with an eye on riding the course straight through.

As each year passes, the form line becomes a little more transparent. There are some repeat offenders who are regularly in contention. Nine of last year’s top ten were in the field. Our 2022 Winner Wes Hart and two-time RAAM finisher Matt Warner-Smith were amongst them, as was 2015 Tour Divide frontrunner Seb Dunne, who was back after a few years building a family, plus some rumoured Sydney reinforcements. The women contenders included past winners Meredith Quinlan, Lauren Bartsch, and Lucie Van der Schalk. The race was underway at 8 a.m. from the city edge at Canberra’s International Stromlo Mountain Bike Park. An opening five-kilometre dirt slalom along some fire roads opened up the field of 70 riders before they exited onto public roads.

The first 65 kilometres were over some mixed terrain to the first resupply option at the village of Wee Jasper. Here, the new Gin Distillery hosted riders with water, a bathroom, and the option of coffee and food to go. English rider Matt Kasher, a recent Canberra arrival, was mixing the lead with young local rider Joel Findlay and a bevy of riders that included the Sydney-based Hart, Warner-Smith, and rookies Dave Evans and Alex Malone, only minutes behind. Averaging 28 kilometres an hour into Wee Jasper didn’t seem a sustainable pace.

The 22-kilometre climb out of Wee Jasper opened the field with Findlay, Malone, and Evans pulling away after Wes Hart and Matt Warner-Smith conceded that they were not prepared to maintain the chase at the pace up front. Lauren Bartsch was running in the top ten, leading the women’s division. The next option to re-supply was Jugiong, a small village just off the main Sydney-Melbourne highway link. The leading trio arrived in Jugiong at 2:11 p.m. still averaging a cracking 27 kilometres an hour and having put away 2,500 metres of climbing along the way. By mid-afternoon, the temperatures had climbed over 30°C, and riders were pushing into a decent hot westerly along the Murrumbidgee River corridor. Scratchings started to tumble in, and Matt Kasher, Seb Dunne, Heath Wade, and Paul Lester were amongst them.

By 250 kilometres in, the halfway and northernmost point on the course just through the larger rural town of Young, the leading trio’s average was down to 25 kilometres an hour. Matt Warner-Smith was in fourth, trailing by 20 minutes, but he had opened a clear 30-minute gap over Hart, Bartsch, Robby Dalitz, and Ben Connett, who were all in Young within minutes of each other to resupply for the evening. The next and last service opportunity for the night was the smaller town of Boorowa, a further 65 kilometres ahead and likely close to pub closing time at their arrival.

As darkness closed in on the night, the folly of fast night riding on backcountry Australian roads took on another dimension for our leading trio of city-based riders. Riding three abreast, the game of skittles with erratic kangaroos, wombats, and livestock blinded by contemporary super bright lights quickly slowed proceedings in favour of safety and remaining upright. This was also the case with riders further back in the field. The flow of fast gravel/dirt roads also evaporated in the darkness, with many riders reporting bone-shaking corrugations over the closing 100 kilometres before some final relief of pavement back into Canberra.

The trio of Malone, Evans, and Findlay ebbed and flowed through the darkness, each having periods of fatigue from the heat and keeping the pace up. Evans and Malone have a long friendship going back 20 years. Dave Evans said: “Alex and I are extremely evenly matched over long races. He’s a bit stronger on the flat and early to mid-race, and my strength is climbing and getting ‘stronger’ or at least not going slower later in races, which is pretty much how the Prologue panned out. We’d never met Joel before, so we had no idea how good he was. I just know he was young and keen and clearly very fit. His ‘nutrition’ program left a lot to be desired, though. I think he did almost the whole ride on sugar water and I mean, a shitload of sugar!

We all had our moments during the race. For me, it was the heat out of Jugiong and getting to Harden and Young. For Alex, it was pushing the pace in the middle that hurt him in the early hours of the morning. And Joel’s stomach gave him lots of issues in the final six hours or so, but all of us just kept pushing. We wouldn’t see Joel for a while and then he’d be back with us. This must have happened a dozen-plus times during the race due to punctures and or food and drink or toilet stops. In the end, no one could drop the others, so we all cruised in together. A victory for all but most of all gravel adventure cycling!”

As dawn was breaking, the trio of Alex Malone (M35+), Dave Evans (M50+), and Joel Findlay (M20+) rolled into the finish at the Bent Spoke Brewing Co. finishing at 6:04 a.m. for an elapsed ride time of 22 hours and 4 minutes. Lauren Bartsch again won the Women’s Division, making it three wins from three Prologue starts and coming in 7th place in 25 hours and 7 minutes, with second-place woman Lucie van der Schalk rounding out the top ten.

2023 Cloudride Prologue Results

• Alex Malone (Sydney) (22H:04M)
• Dave Evans (Sydney) (22H:04M)
• Joel Findlay (Canberra) (22H:04M))
• Matt Warner-Smith (Sydney) (23H:35M)
• Wes Hart (Sydney) (24H:06M)

Related Content

Make sure to dig into these related articles for more info...

23

ROUTE

The Hunt 1000 Australian Alps Trail

12

ROUTE

Fat-bikepacking Australia’s Canning Stock Route

45

ROUTE

Attack of The Buns

62

ROUTE

The Otway Rip

Please keep the conversation civil, constructive, and inclusive, or your comment will be removed.